The author speaks about the ambiguity of the concept in both historical and intonational interpre­tation. Therefore, in modern interpretation it is often replaced by the term ‘line,’ but the question does not become clearer. The researcher discusses the melodic beginning in the work of the minimalists and emphasises the importance of the melodic impulse in Takemitsu, who relies in his search on models of the past, including Debussy’s idioms. Hrabovsky notes both modern neo­classicism and neo-impressionism in Takemitsu’s work. In the author’s opinion, the melodic element has never disappeared in the music of Russian and Eastern European composers (examples from Shedrin’s work are cited). Equally important is the question of the new hermeneutics of tonality, a hint of which Hrabovsky finds in Xenakis and Berio’s opuses, where melodic phrases-intonations also make themselves known in a veiled way. The author also emphasises the turn towards traditional tonality in the late Slonimsky. The further development of melodic-tonal beginning cannot be predicted, according to Hrabovsky.